FARMING ENDANGERED SPECIES TO EXTINCTION

This blog is to show why and how tiger farming took off in China. China has now pledged to phase out tiger farming - but will the Government be true to it’s word now that lion farming has been permitted by CITES?.Shockingly - at the same CITES CoP17 meeting – where China pledged to stop tiger farming – which was leading to unsustainable demand for tiger products and had failed to stop poaching of wild tigers, across their range - the farming, canned hunting and trade of lions bones was given the green light to continue. It is beyond comprehension why - knowing that tiger farming and trade of tiger bone products only led to increased demand and poaching of wild tigers continued - CITES permitted the farming of lions and trade of their bones in Asia.

Tiger and Bear Bile Farming in China

Economic expansion in China accelerated dramatically in the 1990's, as a result of mass privatisation, and the opening up of the country to foreign investment. Overseas firms rushed to build factories in China to take advantage of its low labour costs. Millions of Chinese had become extremely wealthy by the year 2000, due to this rapid economic growth. http://money.cnn.com/video/investing/2015/10/06/market-movers-china.cnnmoney/

It was then that millions of wealthy Chinese Businessmen started buying rare objects of prestige as status symbols, gifts, bribes or as investments. Rare and valuable items, made from of Ivory, rhino horn and tiger body parts, were sought after by the growing number of middle class consumers. Money was no object - the rarer and higher priced – the more sought after they were. http://nextshark.com/rich-people-in-china-buying-endangered-species/

By farming endangered tigers, to supply products from their body parts, this lucrative market could be exploited. Domestic trade of tiger products such as tiger wine was permitted in China and demand, which had fallen away, at this time, due to the ban on trade in 1993, was encouraged and re-stimulated. Gifting expensive tiger products soon became fashionable as a way to flaunt wealth and power and to gain favour among influential people such as government officials, military officers and wealthy businessmen. Farming tigers became an extremely lucrative business.

Tiger farming in China began to expand in early 2000 - supposedly for ‘medical and conservation purposes - but in reality it was to profit from the hugely lucrative market potential that had emerged. By 2007 there were around 5,000 farmed tigers in China. Demand had fallen, due to the ban on trade, but by producing rare tiger products made from their skins, bones, claws and teeth, to attract newly affluent consumers, huge profits could be made. It was claimed that by farming tigers to supply demand wild tigers would no longer be poached. Yet, at the time, demand had been greatly reduced so there was no need to increase supply. By re stimulating demand for tiger products, poaching in the wild - across their range - has kept going and critically endangered wild tiger populations continue to dwindle. http://e360.yale.edu/feature/how_tiger_farming_in_china_threatens_worlds_wild_tigers/2839/ 

The State Forestry Administration in China started encouraging tiger farming and the industry grew from fewer than 100 farmed animals in 1995 - to around 6,000 today. Permitting the number of tiger farms to keep increasing had sent the message that farming tigers - and trading and consuming tiger products was acceptable. Yet evidence shows that thousands of tigers, bred for trade, are kept in cruel conditions behind the scenes. Tigers need space to roam and should never be caged! Farming tigers has not stopped poaching in the wild. As numbers of farmed tigers have increased to more than 6,000, numbers in the wild have decreased to around 3,400. http://e360.yale.edu/feature/how_tiger_farming_in_china_threatens_worlds_wild_tigers/2839/

Industrial-scale tiger farming has increased demand for tiger products and now makes millions of dollars for a handful of people. Speculators are also collecting tiger skin rugs and cases of tiger bone wine - made from wild tiger bones (vintage brewed from wild tigers is most valuable) - and watching their investment grow as the numbers of wild tigers dwindle while the demand keeps increasing. The speculators are banking on extinction in the wild! http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2014/10/21/industrial-scale-tiger-farms-feeding-chinas-thirst-for-luxury-tiger-products/

If laws encourage production and consumption of products from endangered species and Governments lend their support to making them available, by permitting farming and legalising domestic trade - removing the stigma of consumption - demand for those products will increase, regardless of what source they come from. Tigers, lions, rhinos and bears should not be farmed for their body parts or products from them. Yet tigers, lions, rhinos and bears are being farmed in unatural, overcrowded conditions, breed them as fast as possible - to harvest bones, horns and bile - while keeping costs as low as possible. In South Africa farmers are permitted, by CITES, to farm thousands of lions for canned trophy hunting and trade of their bones. As the history of tiger farming has shown, this will lead to ever increasing demand and to poaching of wild lions across their range.    http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2015-08-11-trophy-hunting-fuels-asian-lion-bone-trade/

In China, since the sale of tiger wine and tiger skins was permitted domestically, demand has increased dramatically, when it had been waning after the CITES ban on trade had been enforced. Poaching of more highly valued wild tigers, across their range has continued - to supply the ever growing demand. Tigers are now being farmed in many other Asian countries too, in order to profit from the growing demand for high value tiger products such as tiger skins, jewellery made from claws and teeth and expensive tiger wine, (made by soaking tiger bones in rice wine, supposedly to infuse the wine with the life force of a tiger).  Even tiger cubs are now used to make tiger wine. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-36424091

In truth farming tigers is about wealth - not health or conservation of wild tigers! Tigers are caged and bred on farms for their body parts to create demand for luxury goods such as tiger bone wine, tiger skin rugs and for their meat - to take advantage of the growth in the market. Warehouses across China currently hold hundreds of tiger corpses soaking in tanks of herbs and rice wine. The longer they soak the more valuable the wine becomes. A few investors are creating a multi-billion-dollar a year business at the expense of wild tigers, across their range, that are now facing extinction due to poaching because of the value and level of demand being created for their body parts. http://www.ifaw.org/united-states/news/demand-parts-endangered-species-immoral

Farming tigers and supplying products such as tiger bone wine, tiger skin rugs, tiger meat, lucky charms, tiger skin wallets, and jewellery made from tiger claws and teeth etc. is about producing products and creating more demand to re-stimulate markets for them. There's a strong suspicion that corrupt officials and powerful businessmen are behind this million dollar trade in tiger parts. Yet polls have shown that most people in China do not want tiger products, nor do they support tiger farming. Even Traditional Chinese Practitioners no longer use tiger bone in TCM - nor do they want to any longer. They want Chinese Traditional Medicine to be accepted globally and believe farming tigers damages China’s image. ‘Using tiger products and body parts does not provide necessary medical treatment as claimed, nor is it upholding sacred cultural tradition – it’s simply about money, influence and speculation’ says Lixin Huang, the president of the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine. https://www.theguardian.com/…/tiger-temple-scandal-billion-…

Once demand for products from endangered species such as tigers, lions and rhinos is encouraged, by permitting legal trade, it will keep on increasing because of the size of markets across Asia alone – not to mention TCM high street outlets worldwide - and via Internet sales. If only a small percentage of China’s 1.4 billion people consume tiger, lion bone and rhino products, for instance, demand would soon outstrip supply. Even a mere 1% increase of consumers in China represents 14 million new customers. There are around 5,000 farmed rhinos and 6,000 farmed tigers to supply demand, at the moment, in huge markets across Asia and the Middle East where millions of millionaires would buy these products if trade was legalised. As demand and trade - legal and illegal keep increasing - so poaching increases to supply markets - causing wild tiger, lion and rhino numbers to keep on falling. Then, as tiger, lion and rhino numbers decrease in the wild - products from them are increasingly seen as investments whose values will rise once they become extinct. Legal Trade does not stop poaching - it encourages it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waEfAFF34a8

Since tiger products, ivory, rhino horn and lion bones have been made available and accessible on both legal and illegal markets from early 2000, the demand for such products has grown in increasingly affluent markets of Asia. Since tiger farming began, thousands of tigers have suffered cruelty and starvation.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dYfG1PkDsc

Many tiger farming facilities have opened in other Asian countries too, where tiger cub petting and posing with tigers is permitted to attract tourists. But in reality the 'tiger sanctuaries' are just a front and illegal trade of tiger products goes on behind the scenes. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3629060/Thai-police-tiger-slaughter-house-temple-probe.html

Thousands of other endangered species, worldwide, such as helmeted horn-bills are also being illegally traded to supply insatiable demand for high value products made their bills. Legal trade of endangered species creates loopholes for well connected traffickers to take advantage of in Africa and Asia where bribery and corruption are rife. Because insiders and authorities are often involved, and blind eyes are turned - when pockets are lined - illegal trade and poaching of endangered species is impossible to prevent as long as demand is encouraged. The CITES bans are not properly policed or enforced by sanctions and legal trade is used as a cover by illegal wildlife traffickers. A blind eye is also turned to sales of meat from endangered sharks, turtles, bears and tigers - presented as a rare delicacy in consumer countries. Tiger meat is served at dinner parties where wealthy guests are treated to a ‘visual feast’ before eating – watching their meal killed and butchered before them. Tiger meat is often supplied by criminal gangs who smuggle tigers, ordered for banquets, from other countries.  http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1457848/arrested-gang-believed-have-slaughtered-more-10-wild-tigers

Bear Bile farming not only causes great cruelty, synthetic alternatives are safer to use. Research carried out by experts has shown that bear bile extracted from farmed bears should be considered unsafe, and that bear farming causes great cruelty to farmed bears. Furthermore, there are synthetic alternatives that can be used instead.  'Professor Jiang Qi, ex-vice president of the Shenyang Pharmaceutical University and deputy chief of the synthetic bear bile research institution, produced research results showing that synthetic bile produced by his team contained 40 percent ursodeoxycholic acid (UCDA), the active ingredient in bear bile.  https://www.animalsasia.org/uk/media/news/news-archive/bear-bile-harmful-to-human-health,-according-to-research-released-at-major-beijing-event.html

Pangolin farming is not Viable it only served to increas demand and poaching in the wild. Experimental pangolin farming was tried in China also, as an investment opportunity, to supply demand for their scales and meat. But farming pangolins is not viable and it simply served to increase demand for pangolin products and led to poaching in the wild - when pangolins were already critically endangered across Asia. Poaching of wild pangolins led to near extinction in Asia and spread to other range states such as India and Africa. Instead of farming pangolins to profit from the sale of their scales and meat there should have been a total ban on all trade in all pangolin species by CITES - and high profile demand elimination campaigns launched by Governments in range and consumer states to end demand for all pangolin products. Pangolins are now being poached in thousands, across their range, to supply the insatiable demand for their scales and meat in Asian markets. Today, pangolins have become the world’s most trafficked animal. All trade of pangolins, and products from them, should be banned because demand in Asia is insatiable and unsustainable. Hopefully all species of pangolins will all be upgraded to App. 1 at CoP17 and the ban on trade enforced with the threat of global trade sanctions. http://www.pangolins.org/2012/01/16/medicinal-use-pangolin-farms-in-china-photos-video/

Conclusion: History shows that farming Endangered Species does not stop poaching in the wild - it encourages and creates unsustainable demand and leads to more poaching in the wild.
The only long-term solution to ending illegal trade and poaching of endangered species in the wild is to ban all trade and eliminate all demand. In this day and age, and with numbers falling so rapidly in the wild for many reasons, endangered species need total protection! History has shown that regulated trade inevitably leads to more poaching – not less! Farming endangered wild animals, to supply their body parts, does not stop poaching. All it does is encourage demand and create loopholes for traffickers who will continue to supply that demand with more highly valued products from wild endangered species.  http://www.smh.com.au/world/seven-deadly-sins-the-rare-animals-the-chinese-middle-class-love-to-eat-20160526-gp4qvw.html

Next blog: Unfortunately, instead of fighting to eliminate all demand for rhino horn, when the trade ban had finally been enforced, and poaching and demand had fallen to an all time low, farming of rhinos in hundreds to harvest and trade their horns for trade began.